This Hope

Hebrews 6:13-19 (NKJV)

“This Hope”

October 6, 2024

I. The Confirmation of Hope (God made a Promise to Abraham that should give us hope) The purpose of this text is to press upon our minds and hearts His desire for us to have "full assurance of hope until the end" to hold on to our hope in Him and not to drift away from Him. The Hebrew writer is giving support for why need the full assurance of hope in verses 11 & 12. He says lest you become "sluggish" or "dull" in the Christian walk. Drifting in the Christian life is deadly. Little by little the Christian hope of glory, the greatness of eternal life with God, the preciousness of salvation from hell and the forgiveness of sins - little by little our confidence in this can begin to fade if we become sluggish. Our text today is talking about, "strong encouragement" to lay hold on hope and not grow sluggish. God made a promise to Abraham, saying, "Surely blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you." This is from Genesis 22 - The climax of the story of the offering of Isaac. Abraham was 75 years old when he first received the promise of God. When Abraham was 86 Ishmael was born of Hagar, but Isaac, not Ishmael, was the covenant promise: Isaac was born of Sarah when she was 90 and Abraham was 100 years old. Romans 4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be" …He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. In Genesis 22 God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Do you remember the ram in the bush? The Lord did provide! God says, "Because you have done this thing" - because of Abraham's faith… "blessing I will bless you…" In other words, it was not Abraham's birthright but Abraham's faith! It is by "faith" that we inherit the promise! Galatians 3:14 says the blessings of Abraham come to us by faith through Jesus!

II. The Consolation of Hope (God’s Counsel is so Immutable He shows us two unchangeable two things - a promise, and an oath) The promise was that Abraham would be blessed and that his descendants would multiply. And the oath was when it is written, "Because God could swear by no one greater He swore by Himself." Our text says, "Men indeed swear by the greater" - we strengthen our word by swearing by some higher authority, we may swear on our mother or father’s good name because we are unreliable, but No One is Greater than our God! Verse 17 says, Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Why would God need to swear an oath to us? Men swear oaths to each other because we are fickle and do not follow through with our promises. But this is not true of God. He cannot lie. Quite simply, God did not need to make such an oath. He “desired to show more convincingly” the unchanging nature of His promise to show the heirs! This is why He made the oath to Abraham. Here we see a marvelous example of God reaching down to meet our need. Our sinful nature makes us so prone to doubt God’s promises. Instead of leaving us in our doubt, God’s mercy and love leads Him not only to promise blessing to Abraham, but also to swear it to us. This is a pure act of grace, He did not have to do this. He did this for us! Why do we need it? Because we get shaken in our faith. We need to be reassured that God always does what He says He will do. God is guaranteeing His trustworthiness through two unchangeable things: a promise & an oath.

III. The Confidence of Hope (God wants us both Sure and Steadfast in our Commitment to Journey) This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (v.19). The hope of glory accomplishes for the soul the same thing which an anchor does for a ship. It holds it secure in the midst of storms. In order to be “sure” and "steadfast" and hold a vessel steady, an anchor must be tied to something immovable outside of the ship itself. 1 Corinthians 15:58 Because we have victory in Jesus, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Where is this anchor secured? The writer says, "it’s behind the veil." This means the Holy of Holies! The place where the very presence and Glory of God was revealed. What the writer is telling us is that our hope, our anchor, is secured in the presence of God, because Jesus is already seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 1:26-27 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: How does one get this hope of glory? You must place your trust in Jesus Christ. For Christ in you is the Hope of Glory! This hope is our anchor! In times like these, you need a savior. In times like these, you need an anchor. Be very sure, be very sure Your anchor holds and grips the solid rock. This rock is Jesus, yes He's the one. This rock is Jesus, the only one.